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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Did Crown Prince Rudolph really die at Mayerling?

Emperor Franz Joseph and his son Rudolf

Austria's Crown Prince Rudolf, born in 1858, was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth.

Rudolf was married to Princess Stephanie of Belgium in 1881.

Reportedly, it was a loveless marriage.

Reportedly, on 30 January 1889, at the hunting lodge called Mayerling, Rudolf, and his 17 year old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, were found dead.

Mary Vetsera

Rudolph and Stephanie

The official report on the deaths claimed that Rudolph shot Vetsera in the head before shooting himself with his own gun.

Empress Zita, the widow of the last Austrian Emperor Karl (1916-1918) claimed that Rudolph had been murdered after he had refused to take part in a French plot to depose his pro-German conservative father.

Marie Larisch

Rudolph had been inroduced to his mistress Mary Vetsera by Countess Marie Louise Larisch von Moennich, niece of the Empress Elisabeth.